


Mixed Signals

by BlurglesmurfKlaine



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23654209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlurglesmurfKlaine/pseuds/BlurglesmurfKlaine
Summary: Blaine Anderson is the new transfer at McKinley High. He quickly becomes fast friends with Kurt Hummel—Glee Club diva, straight A student, Cheerio extraordinaire. He plans to win his heart, but there’s just one problem: he can’t make heads or tails of Kurt Hummel.(Just crossposting from tumblr bc im bored!)
Relationships: Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel
Comments: 11
Kudos: 66





	Mixed Signals

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So uh, I don’t really know what this is I haven’t written anything in literal years and I just popped this trash baby out so… yeah enjoy 
> 
> Edit: this was the first thing i wrote this past summer after coming back into fandom and it was before i had this account, so here i am corssposting it!

Blaine follows his new show choir director into the choir room, which he notes is significantly less grandeur than the one at Dalton, but he digresses. McKinley was supposed to be a new start and although leaving Dalton isn’t something he was ever too keen about, he knows he has to try and find the silver lining of it all, at least for his parents’ sakes.

Said silver lining presents itself in the form of a pale skinned, blue eyed boy wearing a cheerleading uniform who caught Blaine’s eye as he took center stage of the room to introduce himself.  
  
“Hello everyone,” he waves to the eclectic group of students with one hand and keeps the other safely in his pocket. “I’m Blaine Anderson. I just transferred here from Dalton Academy.”

It seems he has unnamed male Cheerio’s attention, he can practically feel the boy’s gaze quickly traveling up and down his entire body, as if assessing him.  
  
“Let’s all give Blaine a warm welcome,” says the teacher—Mr. Shue, he remembered. He gestures to the chairs in front of them as the thirteen other members applauded. “Take a seat wherever you’d like.”  
  
It doesn’t m take long for him to make his way towards the empty seat next to Cheerio boy and claim it. It also doesn’t take long for the rest of the New Directions to exchange a multitude of glances that range from surprised to suggestive to sly.

The boy offers Blaine a hand and an almost bashful smile. “My name’s Kurt,” he introduced himself. “Kurt Hummel.”  
  
After fifty minutes of solos, rehearsing, and casual chatter, Blaine is definitely intrigued by Kurt, to say the least. He learns that Kurt and Finn are step brothers after the latter had come up to him and asked what they were having for dinner. “Oh, you two are dating?” Blaine had asked, not so smoothly and unable to keep his interest discreet despite his best efforts.  
  
This caused the tallest of them all to laugh heartily, throwing his head back. “No, we’re brothers. Kurt’s dad married my mom. I used to be kind of a dick, but our brotherhood kind of changed that. Did you know that grilled cheesus never said anything about gay people—“  
  
Finn goes on for several more minutes about all he’s learned about gay rights in support of his brother, and Kurt watches and listens with equal parts pride and amusement. Not everything he says is entirely accurate, but neither Kurt nor Blaine have the heart to tell him that. Instead, they just exchange bemused glances every time it happens and let the leader of the New Directions continue on, blissfully ignorant.  
  
The bell finally dismisses them, and before Blaine leaves, his new friend is practically bouncing over to him. Blaine notes the hopeful look on his face as he gnawed on his bottom lip nervously. “I know this might be a little forward, but,” he reaches out and pulled his arm towards him, rucking up Blaine’s sleeve. He tries to stay calm as he watches the purple pen move furiously, scrawling out seven digits on Blaine’s forearm. “We should hang out.”  
  
He can’t keep the smile off his face. “We should.”

* * *

  
  
The next time Blaine sees Kurt, he’s changed out of his Cheerio’s uniform and opted for a subdued gray tee shirt paired with a blue hoodie. He can’t say he’s not surprised at the disconnect between Kurt’s effervescent personality and muted fashion sense, but he’s excited to share calculus with him nonetheless.  
  
He throws his hand up in a friendly wave towards the boy and is slightly confused when he receives nothing more but an angrily puzzled glare in return. Offset, but not entirely discouraged, he sits right behind him.  
  
The lesson continues and Blaine is taking immaculate and thorough notes about the square root of negative integers when Kurt bursts out in disbelief. “Woah, woah, there are imaginary numbers now?” He scoffs, and Blaine is startled at how much lower his voice is. “Are there _unicorns_ in the next lesson?”  
  
“Mr. Hummel,” the teacher scolds, folding his arms. “Are we going to need another chat with principal Figgins?”  
  
“No but we might need one with the people in charge of educating the nation’s youth.” He mutters.  
  
Blaine is absolutely floored at the jarring contrast between the Kurt he met two periods ago and the one sitting in front of him right now. Still, he doesn’t want his new friend to get into trouble, so he places a gentle hand on his shoulder, earning a flinch from the other boy.  
  
He whips around to face Blaine. “What?” He hisses.  
  
“Nothing, I just… don’t want you to get into trouble.” He admits.

He looks at Blaine like he’s never seen him before this moment, absolutely bewildered. “Thanks,” he says, not an ounce of actual gratitude in his voice. “But I can handle myself just fine.” And he turns back around to face the board.  
  
Blaine sits there, stirring in his confusion. He hadn’t know Kurt could be so… _abrasive_. At least, not based on his interactions with him earlier that day. He brushes it off with a shake of his head. Maybe he was just having a bad day.  
  
He’s sure it’s a one time thing.  
  


* * *

  
  
It’s not a one time thing.  
  
Blaine slowly realizes over the course of more than a few days, that it’s an actually _very regular_ occurrence. And normally, this would be the sort of thing that makes Blaine run for the hills, but the fifty-percent of the time Kurt is being his normal optimistic self (he quickly thinks, what if he just assumes that’s Kurt’s default personality because it’s the first one he met, but he pushes the thought aside) he is really into him. He hasn’t been this into a guy since… well, _ever_.  
  
He’s seen Kurt stand up to several jerks with comebacks that had the power behind them to instantly disintegrate anyone who dared to try and shoot any homophobia in his direction. He isn’t used to this kind of bravery, mostly because it wasn’t needed at Dalton, but here it definitely is, and Blaine admires courage like that.  
  
Kurt was there when he had first gotten slushied, willing and more than prepared with all the needed grooming supplies to help get the sticky sweet ice out of Blaine’s unfortunate hair.  
  
They had even sung a few—admittedly flirty—duets for their glee club assignments.  
  
That was the Kurt he liked.  
  
But he’s also seen Kurt crumple up the cute note he’d left for him on his desk and immediately toss it into the wastebasket. He’s seen him mock fellow Cheerios when he’s not in uniform with “Two, four, six, eight! Heard you like to fornicate!” and a sarcastic grin.  
  
But what he can’t fathom is how Kurt from glee club, who never fails to ask “Mr. Shue, may I?” ever so politely, and Kurt from history, who refers to Bill Clinton as “came-a-lot”, are the same person.  
  
He’s made serval mental notes to help him unravel the enigma that was Kurt Hummel, dividing the two versions of him into “Glee Kurt” and “Calculus Kurt”.  
  
Glee Kurt likes to talk, likes to learn everything he can about Blaine. So he tells him everything from piano lessons at age four, to his annoying older brother Cooper. He also likes little intimate touches—a hand on the thigh after a good joke, the grazing of each other’s hands, leaning into each other’s shoulders. Blaine never complains about this, if anything, he encourages it by reciprocating every sign of interest Kurt shows, especially since they’re gone just as easily as they come.  
  
Calculus Kurt speaks in a lower register than Glee Kurt, and after trying to reach for his hand during the few minutes before class and earning an outraged swat in return, Blaine’s learned to practically avoid any contact with him at all during that class, whether it be verbal or physical. He only steps in when he thinks Kurt’s snide remarks might get him into too much trouble.  
  
It’s confusing, to say the least, but Blaine Anderson is not a quitter.

  
  


* * *

  
  
“God my brother is driving me crazy,” Kurt moans as Blaine walks him down the hallway.  
  
Blaine chuckles, unable to imagine what Finn could have possibly done this time. “Was his late-night Call Of Duty tournament keeping you up too late?”  
  
Kurt looks puzzled. “He doesn’t play Call Of Duty,” he replies. Blaine’s forehead creases in confusion because he’s sure he’s heard Finn boast about his marathons on that video game on more than one occasion. “No, his laptop died and he refused to give me back mine so he could work on his journalism project.“  
  
Blaine had no idea that Finn was so passionate about writing, but he supposes Kurt knows his own brother better than he does.

  
  


* * *

  
  
It takes a few weeks, but Blaine finally figures it out.  
  
It’s the Cheerios uniform.

He’s been sheltered by all those years at Dalton, so when he came to McKinley he didn’t understand right away, but now he does. Status is everything to the kids at this school and if you’re wearing a Letterman jacket or a Cheerios uniform, nobody’s going to screw with you.

But if you’re not… well, Blaine is certain that Kurt’s built up walls of his own to protect himself from the idiots like Azimio and Langanthal when he doesn’t have the Cheerios uniform to do it for him.

It’s the only logical explanation.

At least it is until he walks into the choir room and Kurt is wearing black jeans with a bright yellow raincoat.

“Wow,” Blaine greets him, mostly out of surprise from how different this outfit is from Kurt’s normal wardrobe.  
  
“Do you like it?” Kurt takes his usual seat next to Blaine.

“I-I think it’s great,” Blaine stammers, hating how hard it is to make heads or tails of the boy sitting next to him. “It’s just so different from your usual get up.”  
  
“I know.” Kurt chortles. “Sue had them sent out for dry cleaning, so we get to freestyle dress today.”  
  
So, Blaine supposes, it’s not the Cheerios uniform.

  
  


* * *

  
Blaine sighs as he walks into calculus.  
  
This is a bad idea. He knows it’s a really bad idea because Kurt is always in a bad mood for this class, but he doesn’t care. He’s hoping that if he can get Kurt to act like his normal self now, he can do it indefinitely and he won’t have to worry about it anymore.  
  
He takes a steadying breath and walks right up to him. “I usually know to wait until you’re out of this class, but I can’t take it anymore. Will you go to dinner with me?”  
  
Kurt looks up at him like he’s the dumbest creature on earth. It stings.  
  
“Sorry,” Kurt spits without an ounce of remorse in his voice. “I’m not gay, but if I were, I don’t think _you’d_ be my type.”  
  
Blaine feels like he’s been punched in the gut.  
  
His hurt quickly morphs into anger and he retorts back, “You know, I get that you’re capricious, but I never took you for a coward,” before pushing past him and taking a seat in the very back of the class.  
  
He doesn’t see confounded look on the other boy’s face and doesn’t hear him whisper, “What the fuck,” to himself.

* * *

  
  
The situation gets a hundred times more confusing when Kurt comes up to him in the hallway a few days later. “Hey!” He calls out to Blaine.  
  
Blaine tenses. He _so_ does not want to have this conversation right now, and certainly not in the middle of the hallway. He keeps walking, keeps avoiding Kurt.  
“I am talking to you!” Kurt finally catches up with him and grabs him by the shoulder to force Blaine to face him. “You’ve been avoiding me for _days_ and I want to know why!”  
  
Blaine is dumbfounded.  
  
“Look, Kurt,” he scoffs. “If I had known you were still in the closet, I would’ve probably backed off. But _you_ came onto me! I get not being ready to come out, but I _really_ like you and I don’t know how much longer– _hmph!_ ”  
  
Before he knows what’s happening, Kurt is pulling on the front of Blaine’s jacket, bringing their faces together. And it’s… _nice_. It’s _really_ nice.  
  
The pressure of Kurt’s mouth against his own is warm and even, and for a moment Blaine forgets all the crazy that seems to revolve around Kurt Hummel because all he can think about is the world of possibilities this kiss is opening up.  
  
Kurt pulls away, leaving him in a daze.  
  
“Would someone who’s in the closet do _that?_ ”  
  
“I guess not.” Blaine responds airily, head still spinning.

  
  


* * *

  
When Blaine sees Kurt at the end of that day, shoving some books into his locker, he can’t keep his stupid grin off his face.  
  
Blaine comes up behind him and grabs his waist playfully, spinning his around. “I’ve been wanting to do this all day.” He says before pulling them together.  
  
If he’s being honest… it’s not very good. He can feel Kurt grimace and tense up by the time their lips meet, and he’s about to pull away and ask what’s wrong before Kurt beats him to the punch.  
  
He shoves Blaine’s chest, splitting them asunder. “What the _fuck_ was that?”  
  
Blaine can see that Kurt is absolutely seething. “I just thought- after earlier today—”  
  
“In case I haven’t been very clear before, I’m gonna be completely transparent now,” he fumes. “I never want to see your face again. Stay the _hell_ away from me!”  
  
Blaine watches in a melting pot of emotions as Kurt turns around and all but sprints away from him.  
  
What the hell was that all about?

  
  


* * *

Blaine knocks on the Hudson-Hummel household door vigorously. He knows Kurt told him to stay the hell away from him, but his stubborn frustration tells him _they are going to talk about this god dammit._  
  
The door opens and Finn can barely get out a friendly greeting before Blaine busts pats him. “Where’s your brother?” He demands.  
  
“Uh, which one?”  
  
“Don’t play dumb, Finn!” The taller boy only looks at him expectantly. “Kurt!”  
  
Finn sees the look in Blaine’s eyes and knows he’s searching for some kind of answer, probably one he can’t give him. “Uh, Kurt!” He calls. “Your boyfriend’s here and he looks kinda pissed off.”  
  
Kurt comes down the stairs, face lighting up when he sees Blaine.  
  
“Hey—“ he starts, but Blaine wastes no time getting to the point.  
  
“Are we gonna talk about that kiss or not?”  
  
“What?”  
  
“I should go.” Finn points out uncomfortably.  
  
“I thought it was nice, right?”  
  
“It-it was not nice.” Blaine exhales. “You said you didn’t want to see me again.”  
  
“Am I missing something here?”  
  
“I have no idea why I’m still here.”  
  
“I’m getting a lot of mixed signals from you, Kurt!” Blaine finally explodes. “In glee club all you want to do is flirt and hold hands and banter which I am all for, _believe_ me! But then in calculus you seem like you want nothing to do with me!”  
  
“Calculus?” Kurt’s face twists up in a lack of understanding. “We don’t have that class together. I don’t even take calculus, I’m in statistics—“  
  
And then it hits him. He doesn’t take calculus, but there’s one person he knows who does.  
  
“ _CARSON!_ ” Kurt screeches so loudly that even Blaine, seething just a moment ago, is startled.  
  
Blaine hears another set of footsteps rush down the stairs accompanied by a familiar voice. “I swear to god if you called me down here while I’m in the middle of editing my college entrance essay to tell me how unflattering my wardrobe is _again_ I’m gonna—“  
  
The boy stops dead in his tracks when he sees Blaine, and Blaine blanches.  
  
“Oh, my god.” He mumbles.  
  
Standing in front of him is an exact replica of Kurt, wearing the same blue jacket he’d always donned in calculus.  
  
He looks at Kurt, then back at—Carson. It all makes so much sense. Kurt didn’t have a dual personality, Blaine was just an _idiot_.  
  
Twins. Fucking _twins_.  
  
“Oh, my god,” Carson says, turning to Finn and Kurt. “It’s that weirdo I was telling you about!”  
  
“Wait, this is the creepy guy who has a crush on you?” Kurt asks in bewilderment. “I thought you were just expressing your closeted homophobia a la Finn circa sophomore year?”  
  
“Oh,” Finn rolls his eyes. “You just _have_ to bring that up again.”  
  
“You know I’m not homophobic,” Carson retorts, ignoring his stepbrother. “This is that guy that gave me that note, asked me out, then kissed me without warning!”  
  
“You kissed Carson?” Kurt and Finn ask in unison.  
  
“I thought he was you!” Blaine defends himself.  
  
“For a month?” Carson asks, unconvinced. He scoffs. “Convenient.”  
  
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Kurt growls back at him.  
  
“Dude,” Finn interjects, voice beginning to bubble up with laughter. “They look nothing alike.”  
  
“Finn, they are _literally_ identical twins!”  
  
“What, did you just think Kurt was really fickle?” Carson asks incredulously.  
  
Blaine opens his mouth to respond but snaps it shut immediately because even though he now realizes how utterly absurd that sounds, it’s _exactly_ what he thought.  
  
“Oh, my god.” Finn, Kurt, and Carson all chorus in realization.  
  
The horror of the situation dawns on Blaine and a white-hot embarrassment starts burning in the pit of his stomach. “I have to go.” He says, eyes wide as he turns to leave.  
  
Kurt grabs his hand. “What? You don’t have to leave,” he explains.  
  
Blaine shakes his head incredulously. “You’re not done with me? After all that?”  
  
“Of course not!” He laughs as if it’s the craziest thing he’s ever heard. “Do I think you can be a little ridiculously oblivious? Of course. But I really like you, Blaine. Besides, this will make a great story one day.”  
  
From behind them, Carson rolls his eyes. “Can I fucking _go_ now?”  
  
Kurt shoots his brother a glare then immediately turns his attention back to Blaine. “But if you ever kiss my brother again, we’re through.”  
  
Blaine lets his head fall forward and huffs out a laugh. “Deal.” 


End file.
